Short Run Constraints and the Increasing Marginal Value of Time in Recreation

Abstract

Leisure activities such as local recreation trips usually take place in discrete blocks of time that are surrounded by time devoted to other commitments. It can be costly to transfer time between blocks to allow for longer outings. These observations affect the value of time within those blocks and suggest that traditional methods for valuing time using labor markets miss important considerations. This paper presents a new model for time valuation that uses non-employment time commitments to infer the shadow value of time spent in recreation. A unique survey that elicited revealed and stated preference data on household time allocation is used to implement the model. The results support the conclusion that there is an increasing marginal value of time for recreation as the trip length increases.

Keywords

Opportunity cost of time Time allocation Choice margins Local recreation outings

Partial support for this research was provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency under grant no. R-82950801 and by CEnREP at North Carolina State University. Thanks are due Doug Larson and two anaonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier draft, to Jaren Pope and Brian Stynes for their assistance in conducting the survey used for this analysis, and to Melissa Brandt, Michael Darden, Eric McMillen and Vincent McKeever for assistance in assembling the data from the household survey.

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